Leading Irish jumps trainer Willie Mullins has a particularly strong hand ahead of this year’s John Smith’s Grand National at Aintree on April, his The Midnight Club heading the horse racing betting at a best price 10/1 at present. Scotsirish is another Mullins horse with good prospects at Aintree, even though a couple of firms go as big as 100/1 about his chance of winning the ‘world’s greatest steeplechase’, writes Elliot Slater.
 
A classy performer at distances between two and three miles, the apparent generosity of the bookmaking fraternity in offering up to triple-figure odds about the 10-year-old seems to rest solely on their belief that he won’t stay the marathon trip. At first glance when you see that he failed by less than three-lengths to beat former champion chaser Big Zeb in a Grade 1 event at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting over just two miles, you could be forgiven for thinking that he is an unlikely stayer.
 
Dig a little deeper into the form book though and you will see that the Zaffaran gelding ran a good third to Notre Pere over three-miles-one furlong in the Grade 1 Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup less than two years ago, and was staying-on well (giving 26lbs to the winner Always Waining) when runner-up in the Topham Trophy at Aintree over the Grand National fences only 12 months ago, over two-and-three-quarter-miles.
 
Mullins, who won the race in 2005 with Hedgehunter and sent out the same horse to be a fine second a year later, knows exactly what is required to win the Grand National, so his decision to let Scotsirish take his chance must be respected. Over the years a significant number of horses who specialised at two-and-a-half-miles have run very well in the Aintree marathon and it would come as no surprise to see the classy Scotsirish do just that on the big day.

Henrietta Knight looks far more the headmistress of a private school for ‘young ladies’ than the archetypal thoroughbred racehorse trainer, but the cloche hat and pearls shouldn’t trick anyway into believing she isn’t one of the most astute exponents of her craft, writes Elliot Slater.
 
The lady who famously can’t bear to look when her horses race and is usually found hiding around the back of the grandstand while her horses are being cheered to the rafters, is most readily associated with the outstanding triple Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate and the champion chaser Edredon Bleu, amongst a number of fine horses she has trained, and her supporters will be hoping that Calgary Bay can be the next Knight superstar when he bids for glory in the John Smith’s Grand National at Aintree on April 9th.
 
Knight has never been overly keen on running her beloved horses in the Grand National so the fact that she has been targeting this race with Calgary Bay surely says something about the chance she believes this classy performer has of making his presence felt in the ‘world’s greatest steeplechase’ and those looking to bet on horse racing would do well to bear this in mind.
 
A Grade 2 winning novice chaser who won Cheltenham’s Dipper Novice Chase in 2009, the eight-year-old is the perfect age for the Aintree spectacular, certainly stays three miles well (and will probably stay much further at the pace of the marathon event), and has been in good form already this term, finishing a fine fourth to Poquelin in the Grade 3 Vote AP McCoy Gold Cup at Cheltenham in November, then chasing home Wishfull Thinking in the Grade 3 Murphy Group Chase over the same course and distance in January.
 
With the ground likely to be in his favour and having bypassed the Cheltenham Festival to come fresh and well to Aintree, Calgary Bay’s 33/1 odds seem sure to appeal to plenty of punters.